Batinick warns progressive tax would cost jobs

Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) doesn’t mince words when it comes to voicing his condemnation of the proposed progressive tax system.

“It’s just another tax increase proposal from individuals devoid of any ideas on how to grow the economy, streamline government or cut waste,” he told the Will County Gazette.

Talk of a graduated tax continues to permeate Springfield even after a progressive-tax constitutional amendment failed to pass the general assembly earlier this year. House Resolution 1025, filed and introduced by House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) advocating to do the same thing, recently made its way through the Congress.

House Bill 3522, sponsored by Rep. Robert Martwick (D-Chicago) a year ago, would raise taxes on Illinoisans making as little as $17,300 a year, according to the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI).

Lawmakers opposed to the plan also stress that the tax rates in the districts of every lawmaker who voted in favor of the resolution would be higher under the guidelines of Martwick’s proposal, which is also known as the Friendly Act.

Batinick is already on record with his objections to the recently enacted $38.5 billion budget, and he sees a progressive tax system as only opening the door to even more wasteful spending.

“So much of the policy that’s being enacted has served to carve out the middle class,” he said. “Property taxes are too high, all the overregulation has led to all the manufacturing jobs leaving. And when the jobs go, the people go.”

Indeed, various financial experts have already asserted that such a progressive tax system could be yet another nail in the coffin for an economy many already view as being on life support.

Batinick recently took to the House floor to argue against the idea of a progressive tax, pointing out that since North Carolina went from such a system to a flat tax the state has seen some of the lowest property taxes in the country, while California, which operates under a progressive tax as one of the richest states, now has at least a third of its population living in poverty.